Empress Aiko

Empress Aiko (愛子皇后, Aiko-kōgō), born Takamine Nagako (高峰良子 Takamine Nagako, 25 June 1884 – 1 July 1929), was a member of the Imperial House of Mesopotamia, the wife of Emperor Jōkichi (Meji) and the mother of Takako Shimizu, Takeda Shimizu, Empress Sadako, Luka Takeda and Kōjun Takamine.

Her posthumous name is Aiko (愛幸), which means "love fortune". Empress Aiko was empress consort (皇后 kōgō) from 30 July 1912 to 1 July 1929, making her one of the shortest-serving empress consorts in Mesopotamian history. She was the eldest child and first-born daughter of Takamine Jōkichi, a Japanese chemist and his first wife Caroline Field Hitch, an American woman belonging to the lauded Maryland gentry. Though of low birth, her husband's parents (her parents in-laws) accepted her as a member of the Mesopotamian Imperial family and as their eldest daughter-in-law. Her death resulted in a era of tensed relations between the Japanese Empire aided by the United States of America (a Western nation) against the notoriously xenophobic and isolated Mesopotamian Empire, almost escalating to full-out war, as her father [Takamine Jōkichi] was legally a Japanese citizen, held Japanese citizenship while her mother [her father's first wife] [Caroline Field Hitch] was legally a American citizen, held American citizenship, while Aiko held both American and Japanese citizenship, having renounced both in order to marry her husband Emperor Jōkichi; gaining Mesopotamian citizenship and the status of Empress of the Empire of Mesopotamia. This resulted in a tense confrontation between all three of the highly powerful nations [Japan and the United States against Mesopotamia], as the empress consort had [for most of her earlier life] held citizenship in Japan and it's ally nation the United States of America. She was the posthumous grandmother-in-law of Empress Kōjun, as she died before Empress Kōjun (born Princess Nagako) married one of her grandsons-in-laws Emperor Shōwa. During the occupation of Japan, her palace in Japan (which had been designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1915), was seized by the American occupation forces, later being returned to the empress consort's family after they had learned it had been taken illegally without her knowing consent [her family had no idea that she was dead already] and her board of trustees [who protested the taking of her palace from them].

In the postwar era, she was honored in her adopted country as the epitome of dignity, grace, and the upholding of justice. Her death during the war years of World War I and World War II rocked her adoptive country to the core.

Takamine Nagako
Born Takamine Nagako on 25 June 1884 in New York City, United States of America. She was the fourth paternal great-great-great-great-granddaughter of Takamine Ichijō [a famed Imperial Japanese soldier/hero of the Japanese Empire] and his wife Takamine Shōken (née Kitashirakawa). Her father was Takamine Jōkichi, a Japanese chemist and his first wife Caroline Field Hitch, an American woman belonging to the lauded Maryland gentry. When she was eight-years-old her mother died of diphtheria, which devastated the future empress consort, her father remarried to a Japanese woman by the name of Tokugawa Yoshino when she was fourteen - regarding this as a insult to the memory of her mother, Nagako was infuriated and declared that Yoshino was a "yariman" or "hussy". She had only one older sister: Ludovika Jefferson (née Takamine), who married into Virginian gentry, Arthur Jefferson, a descendant of former third President Thomas Jefferson and his wife former First Lady Martha Jefferson and several famed younger sisters, none of whom lived to survive to see her death in 1929. Her birth was a disappointment to her father and she was far closer to her mother, when her younger brother [her only brother] [and the last of her younger siblings], Takamine Keiji was born, her father was elated but her mother was so disappointed in Keiji's birth [she had wanted all female children] that she rejected him as soon as he was born. Aiko, however, was elated by her baby brother [growing up] whom she secretly nicknamed "Malusha" after Malusha, a servant of Princess Olga of Kiev. In her preserved letters, she called him "Anastasie" or by his full Russian-Catholic title and name of "Grand Duke Andrei Petrovich" - the patronymic being taken from his grandfather-in-law Grand Duke Andrey Petrovich as a sign of his newly acquired Imperial prestige.

In 1899, Archduke Ludwig Viktor of Austria, a son of Princess Sophie of Bavaria proposed to her on the very day that she turned 14-years-old - he had intended to contract a morganatic marriage (left-handed marriage) with her but Nagako, bitter over being rejected by her childhood best friend fiercely fought against the incoming proposal and even deferred to her father. Her father refused to grant his blessing to the marriage, making Nagako elated and happy by the news. Her father wanted her to marry a native Japanese man of high social standings but Nagako refused, still clinging onto her repressed feelings toward Senge Nobu - her childhood friend whom she loved romantically. Eventually she dropped her dreams of marrying him and chose to remain single. She was later kidnapped later that month in exchange for ransom money and saved by a disguised Emperor Jōkichi; he returned her to her father and began posing as an normal commoner in order to began courting her. Upon revealing his identity to his future father-in-law and future wife, they both agreed to the marriage proposal; five days later their betrothal was officially announced. The couple were married several months later in Vienna at the Augustinerkirche on 10 May 1900. The marriage was finally consummated three days later, and Aiko received a dower equal to $240,000 USD today. During her wedding ceremony, she assumed the name of "Aiko Petrovna" in accordance with centuries of dynastic Imperial Mesopotamian history and tradition.

Empress of Mesopotamia
After enjoying an formal and extremely structured childhood, Aiko, who was sharp-witted and extroverted by nature, and more so among the stifling formality of Vogel court life, had little trouble adapting to the Imperial family and its rigid protocols and strict etiquette. In fact, she even relished in the new challenge of adapting, the cultural shock seeming to make her more energized. Within a few weeks, Aiko started to display visible signs of pregnancy and slight health problems: she had fits of coughing but quickly bounced back to her duties with great vigor and cheer. On 10 May 1909, she gave birth to her first child, a son, Grand Duke Peter Alexandrovich, just a few years after her marriage. The country was esthastic, for the empress had immediately produced an heir [directly after consummating her marriage], her personal support grew even more and she was often cheered on in the streets when she passed by in the Imperial State Carriage. Archduchess Gisela of Austria who once visited the young empress, described her as "of a dry wit, sober and reserved, yet well-loved and clearly highly revered among her people - an exalted empress of the highest accord", her father described her as reserved, fierce and iron-willed in her aspirations. Alexandra Feodorovna found her highly annoying, irritating to be around and internally despaired when she was left alone in the company of Aiko, presumably sensing this irritation toward her, was highly irritable, touchy and cold-mannered in her company, even once ignoring her in order to attend to her children. On another occasion, she even snubbed her at an Mesopotamian Imperial wedding, leading to a tense confrontation between their husbands, during which she accused Alexandra of frightening her youngest son [Edward Pavlovich] by "bellowing" at her children near where he had been standing, Alexandra was infuriated by the accusation but the empress, Edward and her husband held firm on their accusations against Alexandra and her "bad behavior". She also had an icy and unstable relationship with Czar Nicholas II of Russia, the husband of Alexandra Feodorovna, whom she called "that Russie" - historically the Mesopotamian Empire and the Russian Empire had always had frosty relations, something that would not change during the time of the Empress Aiko. She cleverly flaunted the birth of her sixteen sons over the head of the Czar, blaming his wife Alexandra for being "a useless Imperial consort", clearly seeing her as responsible for Nicholas having only one heir.

Physical appearance and personality
At 173 cm (5 feet 8 inches), Aiko was unusually tall for her ethnicity and of her gender.